Has the person behind a series of suspicious fires in Waterloo moved on to another neighbourhood?

That’s the question being asked in the city this week, following the ninth suspicious fire since July 6.

The first eight were concentrated in the Lakeshore Village, Lakeshore North and Conservation Meadows neighbourhoods.

The ninth was discovered by construction workers Friday morning as they showed up for work on Ladyslipper Drive – several kilometres west of those neighbourhoods.

Waterloo fire map

The workers were able to extinguish the fire, but not before it damaged a stairwell in one under-construction home and insulation in another.

Sam Catana, who lives nearby, says people in the area are concerned that the fires have escalated from vehicles and decks to sheds and unoccupied homes.

“We’re afraid it could happen to a house that people are living in,” he said.

Authorities have no way to know for sure if the fires are connected. Given that all nine have been set at similar times of day and similar sorts of places, investigators are considering a link.

As part of their investigation, police are looking to speak to a man who was seen cycling near Toll Gate and Glen Forrest boulevards around the time of a suspicious shed fire in that area.

“We are looking to speak to this individual, to find out what information he may know or what he may have seen in the area at that time,” Waterloo Regional Police Service spokesperson Cherri Greeno said Friday.

The video was taken early on the morning of July 30.

With reporting by Brandon Rowe